Arcendium (Alien Images) Review | The Micro User

The Micro User

1st April 1989

Arcendium

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Terry Blunt
Publisher: Alien Images
Machine: Archimedes A3000

Published in The Micro User 7.02

Draughts | Reversi | Backgammon | Quadline | Verdict

Board of games

Alien Images' Arcendium consists of four popular board games of the type you play to relax, as opposed to the brain cracking types like chess. These are Draughts, Reversi, Backgammon and Quadline. Included is a fairly detailed booklet describing the games, their rules, how to play them and references as to where you can get more information - a neat touch.

All the games allow two players or let you compete against the micro. But be warned: The computer plays a mean game on the highest skill levels. This is directly controllable in Backgammon and implied in the other games by limiting the thinking time. In fact the micro displays its depth of thought as it goes. You can get the machine to play itself as well which can be quite instructive.

There are a host of other options too - sound, voice or silence, pause, back-step moves and save and re-load a current game position. The latter is very unusual in this type of game.

Draughts

One of the commonest pitfalls encountered with micro implementations of board games is that of rule variations, a problem particularly relevant to draughts where many people have different views on the huffing rule in particular. Some don't agree with it at all, whereas others allow traps to be set where your opponent is given two piece taking moves at once so that at least one of the attacking pieces is forfeit, it would have been nice if Alien Images had been able to make some allowance for this.

Reversi

There is a similar problem with Reversi - otherwise known as Othello. Usually the game starts with the first four pieces already placed alternatively in the centre of the board. However, this implementation starts with no pieces set and lets you place the first four with the whites adjacent. Apart from that, the game proceeds as you would expect.

Backgammon

I'm not a Backgammon player so I had to pounce on one of my friends to run through it. He was impressed, but found a couple of oddities. Not familiar with micros, he quickly got to grips with the mouse but took awhile to work out how to take pieces from the board.

In fact this is done by clicking the mouse only once to mark the piece to be moved and then going straight to the tick and clicking on that. Normally you need to click on the position you want to move to aswell. This isdetailed in the instruc tions, but can easily beoverlooked.

Quadline

Quadline, or four-in-a-row, is a straighforward conversion. Mouse control is very useful as you can play a fast but relaxed game.

Verdict

If you like board games then this compendium is a must. Even if this isn't your cup of tea, the disc is worth getting to have a look at really neatly laid out games.

Terry Blunt